OHTA.ca

I was issued a speeding ticket by an officer using a mounted radar gun in the moving police SUV. When the officer went thru the initial procedure ie asking for my license etc etc. He came back to my vehicle with an offence ticket stating "he gave me a break and reduced it to half the amount". I asked if I could see the radar gun because I was certain that I was not speeding. He grabbed the ticket out of my hand and yelled at me "are you calling me a liar?" I replied no and stated that I just wanted to see the gun. He continued to yell at me "fine, I will fix the ticket so you will have to pay double the amount because I dont like be called a liar". He walked back to his vehicle and returned a few minutes later handing me back the ticket stating "he doesnt like being called a liar and he fixed the ticket so now I have to pay double the fine". I was shocked at his behaviour which is another story. I looked at the ticket and saw that he actually crossed out the initial speed and wrote above it to show the amount that was doubled as well as the fine amount. The amounts are crossed out and he has initialled his changes.

MY QUESTION IS: CAN THIS OFFICER ALTER A TICKET IN THIS MANNER.??? DOES THIS QUALIFY AS A FATAL ERROR???

I am fighting the ticket and I have filed a complaint against the officer regarding his behaviour and unprofessionalism. But I need to know if he is allowed to make the changes on the same ticket based on his personal outrage at my request.???

I don't believe it would constitute a fatal error. To the best of my knowledge Courts regularly accept tickets with corrections on them. As long as everything is properly crossed out and initialed, I believe the ticket is still valid.

It may be more of an issue that he took the ticket from your hand. In my opinion he had technically already served you when he gave you the ticket, so he shouldn't have taken it back. If he really wanted to charge you for the full amount, he should have issued a corrective summons. Not sure if that's really sufficient to have the charge tossed in Court though.